Police: Renter shot, critically injured after fistfight with landlord
MILTON, Wash. - A fistfight between a landlord and one of his renters ended when the landlord pulled out a gun and shot the other man, critically injuring him, emergency officials said.
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, in the 1300 block of 23rd Avenue, at about 10:20 a.m. Thursday after receiving 911 calls about a shooting.
The first caller, a 63-year-old man, told the 911 dispatcher that he had been assaulted and that he then shot another person with a handgun. The second caller, a 55-year-old man, said he had been shot in a dispute over money. He described the shooter as his “landlord.”
Officers arrived and found the victim in the garage with life-threatening gunshot wound through the torso. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital for emergency treatment.
The landlord, who remained at the scene, told officers that he was renting out the largest garage to the shooting victim and they had a heated verbal argument. The landlord claimed that the renter then punched him until he fell onto the garage floor, so he fired his handgun at him, police said.
The shooter was bleeding from his nose and mouth when officers arrived, and he told investigators he was in fear for his life.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office will determine if any charges will be filed against the landlord.
Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, in the 1300 block of 23rd Avenue, at about 10:20 a.m. Thursday after receiving 911 calls about a shooting.
The first caller, a 63-year-old man, told the 911 dispatcher that he had been assaulted and that he then shot another person with a handgun. The second caller, a 55-year-old man, said he had been shot in a dispute over money. He described the shooter as his “landlord.”
Officers arrived and found the victim in the garage with life-threatening gunshot wound through the torso. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital for emergency treatment.
The landlord, who remained at the scene, told officers that he was renting out the largest garage to the shooting victim and they had a heated verbal argument. The landlord claimed that the renter then punched him until he fell onto the garage floor, so he fired his handgun at him, police said.
The shooter was bleeding from his nose and mouth when officers arrived, and he told investigators he was in fear for his life.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office will determine if any charges will be filed against the landlord.
I know the people involved an the landlord is a very nice an kind man. He does things like rent garages,homes,rooms to people who are in need. This is a very misfortunate thing to happen. I pray for the best.
Remember the winning phrase that pays... "he was in fear for his life."
 @Harrison unfortunately it's something that must be done in this corrupt world where people try and take advantage of one another
Ah.....the story begins to come out at last. Beginning to sound like maybe this guy was defending himself........
From the limited information it sounds like a justifiable shooting. Pretty stupid to be renting out your garage but it still doesn't mean someone should shoot you over it.
 @Blindman Perhaps your reading comprehension is a little off. The guy renting out the garage is the one who fired the shot.
landlords r not allowed on property unless 24 hour notice giving ECT. if u care that much dont rent out your home -- garage !
 @maggie112 Not true. The landlord can come on the property any time they like. They cannot however conduct an inspection without 48 hours notice. By the way, the word is spelled "are", not "r". The other word is spelled "you", not "u". Lastly, do you know what a shift key is for?
 @NaviDog  @maggie112 They can't enter the living area (unless for a clear emergency like a broken pipe or something) without 48 hours notice.Â
A landlord must give 48 hours written notice to the renter to enter the rented property. Unless there is an emergency such as broken pipes, fire, etc. At that time he may enter immediately.
 @maggie112 Does it say somewhere he didn't give notice?  And, it is also possible the renter voluntarily allowed the landlord in, there's nothing wrong with that. Â
Does he get his deposit back?...........
 @MidnightRambler and hospital bill paid!
 @maggie112  @MidnightRambler Why? He is the one who assaulted the owner.
The fighting being stupid on its own, this was literally a cheap poor-sport shot. Not cool to do when you lose...
That's the problems with these wannabees now a days. They are a bunch of punks. To whoever pulled the trigger U got your ass kicked now take it like man instead of trying to act hard by doing something a 3 year old can do!!!
 @tkyed If you're willing to get into a fist fight in the first place you probably weren't that emotionally mature to begin with.
@jowsuf If someone attacks me you better believe it I am going to defend myself!!
 @jowsuf  @tkyed it was implied from a statement of yours. I won't go into detail as I know you didn't pass the WASL and I don't have time to waste.
 @DylanJ  @tkyed Nobody knows who picked the fight and nobody said they did. Reading comprehension.
 @jowsuf  @tkyed tell us, who picked the fight and how do you justify your conclusion?
 @tkyed Remember this guy? All he did was compliment another guys car and was in a coma as a result of it. http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/crime-law/puyallup-man-punched-coma-after-comment-about-car-/nNPq3/
 @tkyed  @jowsuf As you should, but if you picked the fight in the first place you're a moron.Â
My opinion is that anybody who resorts to violence of any kind to prove any kind of point is a neanderthal. Fist fights happen when you're not smart enough to have an argument like a civilized human being.
 @jowsuf You're kidding right? I've talked my way out of a lot of fights but sometimes the savages who want to hurt you don't listen... or can't understand your language... or both... and despite your best "non-violent" efforts...
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THEY ATTACK.Â
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Metaphorically, the barbarians are already within the walls of our civilization and doing what barbarians have historically done to those "civilized" peoples they've come into contact with: they rape, pillage, and MURDER.
 @TheTruncheon If someone attacks you that's a different story. I'm talking about the idiots who pick fights.Â
 @jowsuf  @TheTruncheon I'd be willing to wager that the guy that picked the fight is the one who lost....... Of course that is pure conjecture.... but I've seen it enough times that it would be a fair wager......
Never bring a fist to a gunfight...
If these guys had grown up with John Wayne this would not have happened.
Never shot a man that didn't need shoot'n.
 @BocaBob ^ love this comment!
Disrespected him by woop'em fair and squar. the new thug way. Word out!
Should have walked away. Cowards don't Fist Fight anymore?
That's pretty low down. There used to be honor in a clean fistfight. One lost, one won. The winner usually bought the first drink and they shook hands because they understood that they had the strength of character to stand up for themselves. Now there's just a bunch of spineless pansies that want to shoot a guy in the back. Pheonix Jones was lucky he didn't get one in the back.
@SargeMcC Ah we live in the old days. nowadays 12 YO's carry and use guns to steal candy. more and more from center to left we go. who needs morals anyway?
 @BocaBob Yeah, it's all about "moral relativism" today.Â
It's called winning the battle but losing the war.
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@Icarus Apparently you didnt read the same Zimmerman articles that I have. Trayvon was a thieving menace from another city who, while suspended from school, was prowling through Zimmerman's gated community. While Zimmerman was on neighborhood watch, he tried to find out what Travon was doing there when Trayvon decided to show off his MMA skills on an unsuspecting victim. Fortunately, Zimmerman was armed and able to kill his attacker before he himself was killed.
@scared_citizen Apparently YOU haven't watched the Zimmerman reenactment, court preceedings, nor followed the case at all. You think that because you read a couple articles, you know it all?
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Do you know that Zimmerman followed Trayvon around even though the 911 dispatcher ordered him to stop following the kid? Do you know that Zimmerman's story from the events that happened that night have changed repeatedly? Do you have an explanation of why Zimmerman and his wife lied in court about their financial status for his bail hearing? Did you listen to the recorded conversations of Zimmerman talking in code to his wife and sister while trying to hide over a hundred thousand dollars of donations to his legal defense?
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Zimmerman stalked Trayvon, didn't identify himself as neighborhood watch, and refused to listen to orders given by the 911 dispatcher.
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Sounds completely innocent to me. <sarcasm>
 @Tattooed_Angel  @scared_citizen "Zimmerman stalked Trayvon, didn't identify himself as neighborhood watch, and refused to listen to orders given by the 911 dispatcher."
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I'm PRETTY sure Trayvon knew that he was being followed... It's been a while and I don't remember the details but im confident that zimmerman was trying to confront trayvon but trayvon was fleeing. in the end though and my reason for the reply is the "didn't identify himself as neighborhood watch". does he need to? and to whom? not that either of these questions would make any difference at all; that's the point of bringing it up, it's irrelevant.
@Tattooed_Angel I agree with you alot but not this time. I give the benefit of the doubt to Zimmerman because he was a home owner in that community. They had had recent break ins and he was doing what he could to stop them. Trayvon on the other hand was caught with burglary tools in his backpack when he was suspended. There is absolutley no reason to think that he was "out to shoot black people". You dont HAVE to follow 911 operators "orders" and it was not PRESENTED as an order. They made a SUGGESTION. As for lying in court, lets see what you would do if arrested and prosecuted ONLY BECAUSE of public opinion. He felt like he was being lynched. There are 2 sides to every storey. I just dont see this one the way you do.
 @scared_citizen Is this sarcasm?? Or are you really that delusional?
Poor loser. He'll lose the fist fights in prison too so he better get used to it.
What a pansy! I hope they lock this prissy little idiot up for a LONG time, and he gets a new whuppin every day. Back in the day, you'd fight, one would win, one would lose and you usually ended up becoming friends and buying each other a couple beers. Sore loser.
Well..... when they catch this guy (if someone else doesn't get ahold of him first), I think it will be safe to say that he will be the new loser....
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This sore loser may have plugged the winner, but he's gonna get plugged a lot...in jail.
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 @Bobby Brown Â
Step 1: Count when people think they are going to be witty with a prison sex joke.
Step 2: ??
Step 3: Profit.
It used to be you had your fistfight & when it was done, you shook hands & it was over & done with.
That shows even less character than if he had just pulled out a gun and shot him instead of fighting
Gun culture, just as Bob Costas is explaining.Â
 @lakeview You just going to post that on every gun related story from now on?
 @lakeview No, it's "thug culture".
 @TheTruncheon Did you see Costas on O'Reilly yesterday? That's essentially what he is talking about.Â
 @lakeview Okay. It's not that I'm "assuming", it's because for one reason or another, your opinions haven't been clear enough for me to understand where you stand. If that's my fault I apologize.
 @TheTruncheon See once again, you assume that I want to ban guns. All I am doing is talking about our screwed up gun culture.Â
 @lakeview It's an illusion to blithely believe firearms can be eliminated. It's a relatively simple-to-construct 500+ year old technology.
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Unfortunately our society is today overrun with barbarians who've been enabled and their numbers increased due to the foolishly confused polices and brainwashing of the past 40-some years.Â
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Their violently evil and anti-social barbarian mindset, (such as it is), is the real problem that needs to be eliminated... NOT the ability of the civilized peoples to effectively protect ourselves from the uncivilized shamblers that we are, unfortunately, forced to have festering amongst us, creating chaos and acrimony, pain and heartache, by their actions.
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 @Icarus I stand corrected. I agree, there's nothing remotely "cultural" about the "thugs" and their narrowly pathetic "lives".
@lakeview Bob Costas is a toolshed that needs to leave his opinion at home and just stick to broadcasting football games. (badly, like always)
 @Wolfen  @lakeview Couldn't have said it better myself. As always, if you disagree with a left-ista, you're immature and likely racist, sexist, mean-spirited , etc.Â
 @Fugonn Calling him a toolshed helps how exactly? That's something you say when you can't form a logical argument on your own. Â
 @Wolfen Your attitude is immature and counterproductive.Â
 @lakeview  @TheTruncheon What other things are different between Canada and the US? Crime in general is higher in the US than in Canada..... What does that say? I'm not even sure except that our cultures are different. This gun culture that you keep speaking of is pushed by the far left trying to take those rights away. So you end of with two camps that are the most vocal, with the rest of society firmly in the middle.  I will be a firm defender of my gun rights but not sure I buy into the "gun culture" label. I'm really sick of the false manipulation of statistics when the reality is, most guns used in violence against others were obtained illegally, most gun owners are law abiding citizens who are sick of being attacked by far left for exercising their rights.
 @lakeview I sort of agree with parts of your last statement and would go further to say that it's not just "people on the right" but it's EVERYONE because of the current Newspeak prohibitions on actually, intelligently, having in-depth and factual discussions about anything that might be even remotely construed as "politically-incorrect."Â
 @TheTruncheon Canada has a similar gun ownership rate to USA and they don't have this gun culture problem. It's hard to even discuss gun issues with people on the right because all they want to do is accuse you of trying to ban guns or accuse you of being ignorant to the real world.Â
 @lakeview  @Wolfen ...and just how did you extrapolate that?Â
 @lakeview I would say he's realistic and lives in the real world, understanding the dangers and is mature enough to accept the productive solutions to social problem-makers.  Others choose to live as brainwashed ostriches with blinders on. The evil filth that's shambling around today... like this sore loser... are EXACTLY why law-abiding citizens need to be able to effectively defend ourselves and loved ones.